


Growing Up

by reafterthought



Category: Kimi to Boku | You and I
Genre: Freeverse, Gen, Poetry, ffn challenge: another mega prompts challenge, poetry collection, word count: under 1000 words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 06:26:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12575720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reafterthought/pseuds/reafterthought
Summary: Once upon a time they were carefree kids always together, but now they’re graduating.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Another Mega Prompts Challenge, writing prompts #9 – poetry collection that contains only freeverse

Once upon a time they’d run  
amongst the grass  
and gotten mud on their shoes

But now they’re white, and clean,  
and waiting in their lockers  
till they finish school

And it’s only a walk home,  
not a dash up the hill  
where the town’s their playground  
instead of the box  
that holds them in.


	2. Chapter 2

Once upon a time they’d dance  
and laugh without the weight  
of impending adulthood  
in their bags

But now they’re older.  
They need to think,  
they need to find a place  
that’s not just waiting  
but of their own making.

There are tools to make every home  
and they need to find theirs  
and their block of land  
and the wood  
to hold it up.


	3. Chapter 3

Once upon a time they were kids  
who thought girls gave cooties  
and kissing disease was when their mums  
pecked them on the cheek and sent  
them off to school,  
and slapped cheek was when their dads  
gave them a stern look  
when they misbehaved  
that made their cheeks just hurt

But now they know kissing disease  
is a bad virus that stubbornly stays put  
and slapped cheek is a bug as well  
and all those cooties stuff is wrong and right  
and there are far more foolproof ways  
to get sick, far more ways to die.

They’re not that old yet, that they think  
they’ll soon die, but it’s unavoidable.  
They love. They hate.  
They live. They die.  
It’s a fact of life and they just see it a little early  
or a little late.


	4. Chapter 4

Once upon a time there was a roof  
above their heads. Now it’s opening up  
and their time together under it is   
coming to a close.

They’re graduating: cutting the rope  
and leaving this place behind.

There’s a crossroad ahead of them  
and they’ll all go  
down different paths.  
They’ll walk together for a time.  
They might run back  
but the middle will be gone;  
they won’t meet there again

Till their ten year reunion  
when they’ve got beards  
and longer hair  
(or maybe shorter hair again)

And they’re all grown up…

But leaving school…  
Aren’t they supposed to already be  
grown up?


	5. Chapter 5

Once upon a time there were four friends  
stuck together like the corners  
of a square

But then a fifth came  
and then a sixth  
and they fiddled with the shape.  
They chose to make a star:  
five points  
then six.

And now the day time’s come.  
Night will come again soon  
and their star will be back  
amongst the sky

But for now they must go  
their separate ways.


End file.
